Christopher Booker is a scholar who wrote that every story falls into one of seven basic plot structures: Overcoming the Monster, Rags to Riches, the Quest, Voyage and Return, Comedy, Tragedy, and Rebirth. Shmoop explores which of these structures fits this story like Cinderella’s slipper.
Plot Type : The Quest
The Call
Here our characters have a very specific goal they would like to accomplish: Cora and Alice Munro need to join their father at Fort William Henry.
The Journey
Gosh, that's convenient. Our characters are embarking upon an actual journey through the forest, and it is chock full of perils, making their eventual success (maybe) that much more exciting. The Munro sisters make their way through the forest protected by Major Duncan Heyward, amused by the singer David Gamut, and guided by Hawkeye and his Indian friends.
Arrival and Frustration
Again, this is self-evident. The group arrives, but they don't exactly get their needed R&R. Instead, inhabitants of the fort are brutally massacred and the two sisters are taken captive, yet again. Needless to say, this is frustrating (and bloody).
The Final Ordeals
Hawkeye, Heyward, and the Mohicans attempt to rescue the Munro sisters. Magua is still alive and still scheming, and our heroes must attempt to foil his dastardly attempts to marry Cora.
The Goal
Wait, this is not the happy ending we were expecting!
Here The Last of the Mohicans completely deviates from the traditional stages of "The Quest": nobody gets any treasure, unless you count Heyward finally getting to marry the chick he's been crushing on throughout the novel.
But we don't reeeally count that, because at the end of the day this is a novel about the demise of a civilization and a way of life. (Refer to "What's Up With the Title?" for more.) Instead of treasure and lifelong happiness, we end the novel with a depressed old man who sees his entire way of life being exterminated before his eyes.